


At Least I'll Never See Him Again?

by MarinaZostera



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkward Flirting, F/F, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:09:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23918068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarinaZostera/pseuds/MarinaZostera
Summary: Mairon meets Melkor at a party, they're both awkward.
Relationships: Ilmarë/Thuringwethil (Tolkien), Morgoth Bauglir | Melkor/Sauron | Mairon
Comments: 10
Kudos: 44





	At Least I'll Never See Him Again?

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any of the characters or anything from Tolkien's legendarium.
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this story! I hope/plan to write more from this specific AU in the future. Many thanks to my wonderful friend Meryl who lets me bounce ideas off of her and suggests wonderful dialogue, and my editors/beta readers, Beren and Saeya. You know who you are ;) 
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!

Mairon anxiously twisted one of the many rings he wore around his finger. He’d accompanied his long time friend Eonwë to his bosses engagement party due to the promise of free food. Unfortunately, said food actually cost quite a bit in the way of socializing with what appeared to be the entire city of Valinor. Giving the ring one last nervous twist Mairon spied an ornate door that looked like it led to what would hopefully be a deserted balcony.   


Sparing a glance at his friend confirmed that Eonwë was deep in conversation with his sister Ilmarë and her girlfriend Thuringwethil. With a mental sigh of relief at not having to explain where he was going, Mairon crossed the room and slipped through the door.   


Stepping onto the balcony he slid the door shut behind him blocking out most of the commotion from the party. Reveling in the silence and solitude, he leaned against the railing breathing deeply in an attempt to calm his racing heart and stave off an anxiety attack. After a few deep breaths he looked around the balcony trying to get his bearings and started when he realized he wasn’t alone. On the other end of the balcony sat a tall, broad-shouldered man, with a book balanced in his lap and his back against the railing farther down. With his entirely black outfit, Mairon had almost mistaken him for part of the shadow cast by the roof.   


Realizing he was staring, Mairon cleared his throat. “Uh, hi. Sorry. I didn’t realize anyone else was out here. I just wanted to get away from it all”, he gestured towards where the party continued indoors. He finished with an awkward smile that quickly dropped in discomfort as the man continued to stare at him silently, his pale blue eyes feeling like they were burning into his soul. Something about those eyes felt familiar.   


All at once it hit him. They were the same color as Manwë’s; Eonwë’s boss, the one for whom this engagement party was being thrown. Once he realized that the rest fell into place quickly. “You’re Melkor,” he said, fitting all of the pieces together. He’d only met Manwë once or twice, but knew that he had a twin brother named Melkor.  


Melkor stared at him for what felt like minutes but surely couldn’t have been longer than a few seconds. “Yes,” he finally replied, “I am.”   


“Oh Valar, Mairon thought, swooning internally when he heard Melkor’s deep voice, “I’m fucked.”   
Fumbling for anything to say Mairon decided to play it safe and talk about the weather. Unfortunately, his brain was still short circuiting. “It’s hot goth man out here I mean, Are you hot? It’s hot out isn’t it?” He could feel his face heating up and knew it was as red as his hair. “You absolute moron,” he thought. “You couldn’t play it cool for once?”  


Deciding there was no way he could possibly save face he decided that his best option was to disappear back into the chaos of the party. Turning and disappearing back through the sliding doors without a word, Mairon reassured himself that “At least I’ll never see him again.”   


Melkor blinked in confusion. “Uh, goodbye?” Turning his attention back to his book he couldn’t help but think “He sure was cute though. Too bad I’ll never see him again.”   
  
  
** Three weeks later **   
  


It was a slow day at work so Mairon busied himself with sketching the design for an engagement ring for a friend who was planning to propose to their girlfriend soon. He sighed and erased his work before starting over. His jealousy was distracting him, causing him to daydream about meeting his own soulmate. It had been a few years since his last relationship, and even that hadn’t really been a relationship; Mairon had gone on a few dates with Eonwë, but they had ended up working better as friends. He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t immediately notice that a customer had entered until a deep voice startled him.

“You were on the balcony at my brother’s party.”  


Mairon jumped and looked up and felt his face flush. Melkor was standing in front of him, or rather, standing over him. Closing his sketchbook and shoving it off to the side and sliding off the stool he had been sitting on, Mairon stood up straight and tried to look as professional as possible. Melkor still towered over him, and Mairon felt his heart pounding. “He has a deep voice and he’s over six feet oh Valar, of fucking Valar I want to climb him like a tree.”  


Clearing his throat, he tried to keep his thoughts professional. Much like at the party, Melkor just watched him quietly, waiting for a response.   
“Yes,” he said, and blushed harder as his voice squeaked. “I’m Mairon. I work here,” he nervously twisted the end of his braid, trying to remember how to speak like a human, “I mean, this is my shop. I’m the owner, and the sole employee at the moment.”  


Melkor hummed thoughtfully, “Yes I’ve seen your work before. Varda talks about your work a lot. I guess my brother has bought her a few pieces from you.” He played with the ring attached to his choker as he looked over the pieces in the display case that sat on the counter.   


Mairon studied him for a few moments, taking in as much as he could. With his long black hair, his dark eyeshadow, and all black outfit, Melkor really did perfectly fit the description “hot goth man,” as Mairon had accidentally referred to him as the night of the party. He had been mentally replaying that blunder every night as he tried to fall asleep. Forcing himself to focus on being professional again, he promised himself an entire evening of brooding over his social awkwardness after his shift ended. Maybe with a glass of wine.   


“Were you looking for anything in particular?”  


Melkor nodded. “Yeah I um…” he continued fiddling with his choker and continued “I wanted to commission you for a ring.”   


Mairon’s heart sank. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that such an attractive man was in a relationship, but it was still devastating. “Two glasses of wine then. Maybe three,” he thought. “Yes, I do a lot of engagement rings—“ before he could even finish that sentence Melkor interrupted him.   


“Oh- oh Valar no uh, I’m not, it’s not, uh, it’s not an engagement ring.” Melkor looked awkwardly at his feet, but Mairon felt his excitement skyrocket. There was still hope! “It’s just for me.”   


“Oh, I’m so sorry, I’m working on an engagement ring commission for a friend right now so I just assumed. What would you like?”  


Melkor gave him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about it, I’m sure that’s what most people want rings for. But,” he pulled a piece of scrap paper out of his pocket and handed it over, “I want a snake design. I’m not an artist at all, but uh this was sort of the idea I had.”   


Taking the paper, Mairon studied the crude drawing. Melkor hadn’t lied when he said he was no artist, the design was no more than a circle with a scribble representing a snake attached to it. But it was enough for Mairon to get the basic idea of what he wanted and to refine the design from there.   


“Okay so I need to finish some other commissions first, but I’ll be happy to do this! Once I have a design mocked up we can talk about metal choices and anything else you might like.” As he spoke he made some notes in his sketchbook. “And once we have a design settled on, you can put the deposit down.”   


Melkor nodded. “Okay awesome.” He turned to leave, stopped, and turned around. “Oh, there was one other thing. Uh, did you want to go out sometime?”   


Mairon felt like he was going to explode. Swallowing hard he fought to keep his voice under control. “Y-yeah I would love that!”  


Melkor smiled. “Awesome! Uh well, bye.” Turning, he went to walk out the door.  


Mairon was already mentally drafting the text he was going to send Thil when he realized he didn’t actually have Melkor’s number.   


“Wait, I need your phone number!”  


Melkor stopped and turned back around, a blush spreading across his cheeks. “Oh yeah, sorry, I uh, haven’t asked anyone out in a long time.”   


Mairon handed the scrap paper and a pencil back across the counter to Melkor who scribbled down his phone number.   


Mairon smiled, “I’ll text you! About the date and about the ring.”  


Melkor smiled back and said “yeah, okay, I’ll be waiting.”  


The bells over the door jingled as Melkor exited the shop and Mairon entered his number into his phone before texting Thil: “THURINGWETHIL HOLY SHIT YOU ARE NOT GONNA BELIEVE!!!!!”


End file.
